- About mice and Sundays -

Sunday...usually a peaceful, boring day, without too much fuss. Usually everybody has a family dinner or goes to visit their relatives, you know family stuff – but not us! Here, in Erasmus, is a new life, away from home, from parents, everybody enjoys the beauty of life in their own way.

Why was I only talking about Sunday? Well, because this Sunday was full of excitement for me. I woke up, rubbed my eyes, stretched a bit and looked around...the girls had left to church. I, on the other hand, never was the religious type, I prefer staying in bed, sleeping or enjoying a morning movie or TV show. I stayed in bed until the girls got back and guess what? Surprise – Coimbra had no water! No water until 6 PM. The girls got their jackets back on and ran to the nearest supermarket to buy a 5L water supply. I eventually got out of bed at 12PM and went downstairs to make some breakfast, or should I say lunch? The kitchen was all messy, filthy dishes everywhere, a complete disaster for a neat person like me. Since we had no water, I had to ignore all that, so I made my bowl of cereals and ran back in bed.

Later on, the girls came home, Norbert came up in our room and we started working on our projects. This was not long lasted because the kids got soon hungry, so I had to postpone study to go make some goodies. I grabbed Ada and went downstairs to make dinner.

A dozen dirty dishes later, the schnitzels and vegetables were ready. Despite the fact it was very hot and we were very hungry,we ate everything from our plates. After piling up the dishes, we continued with the study, waiting for 6 PM to approach and our promised water to come back. Unfortunately, 6 PM became 10 PM.

Hours later, the water finally came down the drain and very excited I went to clean the kitchen of that horrible state that it was in. Helena and Tomas, our Czech house mates came in the kitchen smiling that they could make a tea, wash their dishes or grab a bite to eat. After Helena made her tea, I was left alone with Tomas. While he made some pasta with tuna and salad and I was cleaning up, he appreciated that I like cleaning after others. Well, yes, I’m kind of a Monica from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I like everything to be cleaned and put at his rightful place. We talked about University, about ourselves a bit and then Giovanni, the Italian guy, came in.

While we were developing new topics, a little shadow caught our attention – out little furry friend just came out of his lair. Then it came to us to give the mouse his freedom rather than try and kill or poison him. Tomas and Giovanni started barricading the doors and setting up a path for the mouse to reach our front door safely. I started filming this because it was very funny. Imagine this – a barricaded kitchen with chairs all around the back of the fridge where the little rascal had hidden in. The guys tried scarring him away, but the poor mouse was so scared that he just wouldn’t come out.

Minutes later and also after sacrificing Fabrizio’s piece of cheese, the mouse finally got the courage to ran out of the kitchen and back in the wilderness. Relieved, all three of us followed the mouse in the street, watching him go on his way and hoping that he won’t find his way in another house. After this experience, we felt proud that we freed a small friend.

While I swept the kitchen and cleaned the remaining dishes, Tomas finished his meal and Giovanni went to his room to write on our home group about the great news. We all agreed that I needed a hot bath, lucky for me the water was warm enough to enjoy it properly. I went upstairs with Tomas, we said Good night and went to our rooms.

After a relaxing bath and a day packed full of surprises we all went to bed, dreaming of what the next day will provide us. Who knows, maybe the light will be cut off again, or maybe another day without water, or even worst, a day without Internet! You will never know unless you live to see it!

Portugal Experience

Hello all! After a long long time...I'm back! For the past months I've been busy with other problems but now, lets say I'm ok and I want to share about my Erasmus experience in Portugal.

It’s day 4, here, in Coimbra, more exactly Tuesday and it seemed like the day started well…but actually it turned out bad.

I woke up, took a refreshing shower and went down to have breakfast with the others along with a cup of coffee. Everything ok until something had to trigger my emotions. Ovidiu came with a sad, lifeless face, nobody knew what was wrong with him so we left him to sink in his own thoughts.

After our meal, Norbert offered to wash the dishes and Andreea and Ada went to hang the clothes out. I was in the kitchen alone with Norbert hoping he will say something or act somehow. Eventually I saw that it was no use so I grabbed my cup of coffee and went in my room to get dressed. The girls came too, we got dressed and put on some make up and we were ready to go.

Our first stop was the University’s main building where I had to take some papers, because the others had taken them a day before-day that I refused to go out because of one of my issues.

On the road, Norbert teased me that we are making this extra road only because I was stubborn and I didn’t want to come the day before. When we got there, nobody was to reach so we got our map out and started finding our way towards our new destination. Since I didn’t have the necessary papers we postponed our road to the police station and instead we went to get our sim cards.

As we were heading to Alex’s bar, Andreea, Ada and Norbert were exercising their Portuguese that they have been studying at the ISMT course – also, course that I have missed the day before. Also another thing that bother me is that everytime we do our homework, the boys always sit in the girl’s bed and in not in mine – makes me feel left out, isolated. Ok, that was not the trigger tell that got me started.

Since we came here, the boys were admiring Andreea’s ass and her body, including the other girls in the house – same thing that used to happen to me since I can recall. I was never an attraction for boys and I got used with the idea that I’ll never be. This is one of the reasons that made me feel like this. Also it seems that something might be in the air between the 4 romanians and not just friendship or colleagues stuff…I’m talking about something more passionate. Why am I saying this?
Simple, all the gestures, the fact that they spend all their time together like they can’t live apart explains it.

I don’t know if it was the right thing to do, but after listening to too much rubbish…we stopped in a nearby parc because Ovi felt like enjoying some fresh air. Me, on the other hand, I felt home sick, or maybe just wanted to have a quiet moment alone, try to put my thoughts back together and cry, so I left them in the parc and ran home with tears in my eyes. I don’t know if someone saw me crying and, sincerely I didn’t care about that at the moment. All that I care about was the fact that I needed a friend close to me, or – even if I know it’s impossible – I hug from him.

As soon as arrived home, I ran up in my room, I changed clothes and jumped into bed with my laptop in my lap and started listening to some music and writing my every thought down.

Not long after, the other came home and the first to come to me was Ada. She started asking me about what I would like to eat. I told her not to bother about me because I really wasn’t in the mood of eating something. She also told me that I should cheer up and stop thinking about him because it’s not worth spoiling my trip here, to Portugal.

I know that Ada is right, Andreea is right and even Ovi, who tried to cheer me up 2 nights before is right, they are all right about what they are saying, but for me…Norbi is all there is, if I could be really happy again, the only way would be for him to return to me – even if I know that is impossible and it hurts me so bad when I think about it.

Krisztina Pako

Day 2 - I see the opportunity to a perfect start !

Today really was a great day, even if I spent it home, most of the time in bed with my computer beside me and with the keyboard in my lap...but it's so cold here, that you prefer staying tucked in rather than getting up.

Well my inspiration just came in, while listening to Lady Gaga and sipping from my hot tea...an wanted to share this with you guys!

I started my day with some good old episodes of Friends, almost finished season 5 ! Then I continued with a bunch of movies..."Life as we know it", "You Again" and "Easy A", some innocent movies, not much of them, just a bit of learning from each of them ,about how to treat other people right, not judging people before you know them well, even if you think you already do because you can end up liking them, or why not loving them!
Also what I personally learnt is that people change and it's wrong to judge them by the way you know they were and try instead getting along with them, to know them better !

In the afternoon I started planning some things with my colleagues from the Design Department for the upcoming events.We are in this NGO we call it Pro Tineret Vest - you should check it out, links are on the right - it's really great being part of a team, doing things together, planning stuff. Recently we made a new logo for our organization, we are figuring up what the motto will be and what I am more excited about is the training i will be taking part of. More exactly we will help with the building of a climbing wall and after doing some training we will climb it. This is more about team building and not NGO activity, but i think it will be great ! After that, on Tuesday we will take part at a "making Projects" training, don't know much of it, but as a Project Finder is crucial and I am not going to miss this opportunity. I also take care of the newsletters, promoting Pro Tineret Vest on Facebook and moderator on our NGO's forum.

Then there is an sport event, more like a Championship organized by my colleagues from the Sports Department. We talked about it today and came to the conclusion that we should have a meeting and figure things out. We (D.D.) made the diplomas for the contestants that will be part of it and we are planning to continue with the banner and the T-shirts. Our next meeting is just around the corner, just send my colleagues an e-mail, telling them that. We will plan every detail until everything is going to be perfect!

Another good thing is this great Department that has opened, Tourism Department. It's about organizing trips in location we've never been before and "building" a better view about Arad, proving that this city has what to show, promoting it ! I thought about taking some pictures with some friends about it's famous places, buildings.

What can I ask, opportunities are sure to come, I just got to keep an eye on them and be active...and with guys like my colleagues it's a pleasure to work with them !

Some pretty successful,great days ! Day 1

Well, in first place I got to tell you guys that my first post was a different side of me, I am not a grumpy person, it only happens sometimes when I come across something or I'm not in a good mood or I feel left out. Then I start being paranoid and get all sorts of stuff spinning in my head and think that every innocent thing is wrong.

Coming back to what I really wanted to talk about...I was saying that I had some interesting days, in which I learned a thing or two, realized how important is to have these great people around you, that we call "friends", real friends, not some leeches that only want you to be their friend because you do all kinds of favors for them or are there for you only when they need you to be. No, real friends are always there for you, even if you are happy or sad, good or bad or who knows what, they are always a shoulder to cry on. Even if I didn't really had real friends for a long time now(besides a friend from kindergarten and some other few friends that I used to hang with), but you know why? because those who I thought they are my friends ended up being "leeches". For example I had a friend back in high school that only wanted us to hang out when she had something to do or was lonely after a break up, or the many reasons she found that I could spent time with her. Anyways those things are over and I finally found this great boy that understands me and thanks to him I met these awesome people, his friends, now our friends.

Two days ago...I went out with my boyfriend, Norbi, after he got out from an exam, spent some time together, but something was not okay, something definitely bothered him. I was thinking that the fact that we had a little quarrel a day before that, got him in a grumpy mood - well, mostly it was my fault. What I've learned from this is that you should never reproach the fact that he doesn't spends enough time with you if he already has some more important things to do, like developing skills, involving in all kinds of projects, thinking about how to have a successful career. And I don't blame him, it's what we are supposed to do right now, concentrate on our professional life and not on our personal life that much. So we talked about this and came to the conclusion that we are going to continue our relationship as a couple because we love each other, but that's it. Until we will gain enough skills to have a successful and satisfied career we won't go to the next step in our relationship.

After discussing that, we went out to this great, new pub, called Rocco with two friends, Carina and Panti. The place, atmosphere, music, company and last but not least the coffee/tea were awesome.We talked about our favorite tv shows, movies, hobby, things what we were planning to do together, things that made us feel closer to each other. We had a great time !

Sorry I've lenghten the story a bit too much, but this way I will be able next time-when my imagination returns back to me :)-to tell you more of my great days. So... Stay tuned !

Ugly, Evil human just go away and stay that way !

As I was sitting in front of my computer doing not much, actually watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S., oh God, that tv show is just great, it's funny, interesting, exciting and you can learn a lot from it - Big recommends! So anyway, as I was saying...sitting at my computer minding my business, filling my time with something enjoyable, I took a short break to check my Facebook for new notifications, news and stuff. and i had a really awful picture just sticking in my eyes, you know how it's like, it's like you see something disgusting, terrible, horrible that you just dislike!


Well, maybe it's a disease, I mean I have this thing that if I see a person and I don't like him/her for some reason, you can never make me like him/her. It's not jealousy or racism, don't get me wrong...it's just antipathy! Do what you want, you can't make me change about that :) For example, i know this person, ugly as shit and every time I come across it, I just wish I was somewhere else, or I could take that person and disintegrate it (kidding).


I hope you don't think I am a racist or an awful person, I just have this small problem with some people:)


Believe it or not writing this right now made me feel so good, so relieved, fresh !
I'll be going back to my schedule now, who knows, maybe I'll come up with new ideas... stay tuned and see you around !